Ramblings about everything from Cars to Computers

So Sad… First Tesla Wreck in the Wild

Ouch, that does not look good. Apparantly customer #6 drove his car into the back of a Mercedes while fighting traffic in San Francisco. As expected, folks are already blaming the lack of “noise” generated by the car as being a factor. Huh? This was not a pedestrian getting hit, this was just your classic rear-end collision, almost always caused by aggressive tailgating.

While the damage does not look too bad, as most Lotus owners can tell you, this is not an inexpensive vehicle to repair. Both front and rear “clams” will need to be replaced at a cost of approximately $10,000. In addition, the suspension is very fragile, and often even low speed accidents will require replacement of some suspension pieces. Heaven-forbid if a suspension mount is damaged, because the aluminum chassis is “non-repairable”, and has to be swapped out if bent or damaged in any way.

Haeze, you are right, I did not even think about that. The panels on the Lotus Elise/Exige are a fiber-resin composite, the Tesla’s carbon-fiber panels are probably even more expensive. Thanks for the comment.

Ouch, I take offense to that. I think saying that most sports car drivers break all the rules is a little dramatic. I have owned sports cars all my life, and not only do I drive safe, I also have had no accidents or tickets in over 10 years.

I know of many responsible sports car drivers. And, just because you can afford to have a car repaired, doesn’t make it any easier…